“Hide From The Sun” review [UK]

You’ve got to feel at least a little bit sorry for The Rasmus. No, seriously. Put those bottles down at the back. Shortly befor their ill-fated appearance at last years Carling weekend, frontman Lauri Ylönen was gushing to Kerrang! about having the chance to play at a festival that purely as a fan – he used to travel some 1,200 miles to attend. Days later his band were beating and ignominious retreat, bottled off after one song for the heinous crime of making music that some people didn’t much like. On second thoughts, infecting an entire nation, with a teletubbies-on-helium “eh oh” hook that attached itself to the frontol lobe like a Finnish gnome with a crampon was pretty damn heinous but, even so, if you’ve that much hatred going you ought to get out more and make some decent enemies.
They might not be deserving of the level of infective usually reserved for politicians, murderers and Good Charlotte, but that doesn’t neccaserially mean that the follow up to last years “Dead Letters” is any more worthy of your time. There’s been talk of harder, more adventurous sound, but what “Hide from the Sun” actually does is to take a formula and nail it to the floor.
It goes like this. The song starts with a promisingly meaty riff which promptly disappears for a quiet verse which is kept ticking along with background level keyboards or bits of guitar. The big, melodramatic chorus comes crashing in like a pantomime dame then the riff comes back for a couple of bars to be replaced by another quiet verse. Repeat as required.
There are deviations from the formula. “Sail Away” is a campfire acoustic in sequins while “Dead Promises” boasts a lush string arrangment curtisy of Finnish chello – metallers Apocolyptica. Else where, however, a stick rigidly to the nominally dark AOR-flavored soft rock blueprint that first fueled their rise to platinum plated status. The fact that “Night after nigh (Out of the shadows)” is a lyrical sequel to the break through hit “In the shadows” only intesifies the feeling of deja- vu, but it’s new single “No Fear” which boasts an almost identical hook and could- if the mainstreams still biting – lead to yet more commercial success.
“Hide from the sun” is a meticulously – crafted piece of work, gleaming with the sort of polished production job Garbage could easily spend a year working on. If you liked The Rasmus first – sorry, make that fifth – time round, you’ll like this more. If you hated them before, however, there’s absolutely nothing here that will make you change your mind.

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